For the better or worse
by chase88
Summary: Chase had never had to worry about a life and death situation before, but when a patient spreads a deadly disease onto him, it's a matter of what will be done before it's too late. Rated T to be safe. Note I REDID IT AND THERE IS NO CHARACTER DEATH!
1. Chapter 1

House, who always happened to come into work late, arrived in the conference room and surveyed his staff. He had bumped into an enranged Cuddy on the way in and she gave him two extra hours of clinic duty. Now he searched for the perfect candidate to cover him.

Cameron? No she would probably refuse and/or politely say no. Foreman? No he never agreed to cover him and was always trying to take over his job. Chase? House smirked at this thought. Out of all the ducklings, Chase was the weakest because he was never able to say no. Of course, if they had been comparing trauma experiences and who was able deal with the most trauma, then Cameron would be the weakest because she could never deliver bad news to a patient and he knew more about her past then the other two. He wasn't comparing trauma's or past experiences, however, so he stopped behind Chase.

"You are doing my clinic hours and if Cuddy sees you, so you better not be seen, tell her that you wanted to do the clinic hours," House ordered.

"Why does Chase always get stuck with your clinic," Cameron asked when her fellow collegue was out of hearing range.

"Because he's a sucker when it comes to being told what to do,"House answered.

"Maybe you oughta be a little nicer to him," Foreman joined in.

"It's not my fault he doesn't know how to say no, that is just the perks of having him work for me," House retorted.

The other two knew to just drop the topic because once House came to a decision, nothing was going to change his mind.

* * *

Chase was paged to the patient's room that had just became House's next Case. The patient was around her early thirties and a glance at the chart proved that the patient was indeed thirty three years old. Cameron and Foreman explained the case as Chase looked through the history and symptoms listed on the clipboard. 

"Did House come up with anything yet that would explain this," Chase asked.

"No but knowing House, he's probably toying with us," Foreman answered.

Chase was about to make a remark on that when their pagers went off telling them that they needed to get back to the conference room or to pay extremely bad penalties. Seeing as how nobody wanted to see what that would be, they dashed off to the destination.

House was in his usual spot tossing a ball against the wall when they arrived.

"How's the patient," He asked casually.

"Stable," Chase answered simply.

"Symptoms," House gestered for them to continue.

"She has seizures, adominal pain, and respiratory distress," Cameron answered.

"Could be a blood clot, with those symptoms though, anything's possible," Chase added.

"Be a good lap dog and check that out," House ordered.

Chase did exactly what he was told without hesitation.

* * *

"Hi I'm Dr. Chase, miss," He added.

"I'm Mrs. Webb if you want to know," she said softly smiling at the sight of the young doctor.

"That's reassuring," Chase joked. "Where's Mr. Webb?"

"Dead, his heart problem was too much," She answered.

"How long have you been having these problems 'mam," Chase asked.

"It's Lindsay and first I started with his fever and vomiting," She answered.

"It went away," Chase asked suprised.

"No..." she suddenly threw up blood all over Chase.

"I need some help here," Chase yelled as he didn't waste anytime helping the patient and little on the fact that some of the blood was still on his face.

* * *

A/N: that's chapter one. Please review and tell me how this chappy went. 


	2. Chapter 2

"I told you, I'm fine," Chase argued as Cameron looked him over and Foreman stood back watching in amusement.

"How could you be fine, if this is deadly, you could die," Cameron remarked calmly.

It had been exactly three hours since he had been thrown up on and Foreman was about ready to tell Cameron to quit mothering him since he seemed to be fine as it was already, but House had already paged them, therefore beating him to the punch.

"What is it House," Cameron asked annoyed when they were all accounted for.

"Second case don't worry, no vomiting," House added looking Chase over who rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"She is pregnant," Foreman said aloud reading the file over in shock.

"Yeah, and she likely has heart disease," House said.

"Meaning she'll need a new heart," Chase commented.

"Are you up for a good cause," House asked sarcastically.

Chase rolled his eyes and House looked at him suspicously. Mood swings or no, something was off and House realized it was just the embarrassment from being vomited on. He smirked.

"Tired of patients looking you over blondie," House continued.

"Why doesn't Wilson have the case," Foreman asked.

"Because he's an oncologist and heart disease is slightly different from heart cancer," House as usual made his point with sarcasm.

"Patient one is showing a fever of 105.4, vomiting, adominal pain, and the respiratory distress is worse," Cameron reported dutifully.

"Has she been out of town lately," House asked.

"No she had a husband who died though," Chase answered from his place where he was massaging his forehead with his fingers.

House looked shocked for a second before smirking.

"Fine you could get more information out of her since she trusts you sooooooo much," House ordered.

"Bugger off House your a bitch," Chase snapped but did exactly what he was told.

He left everybody stunned.

* * *

"Hey Miss," Chase said as he came into the patients room again. 

She looked slightly confused. Chase blushed.

"Mrs.Webb have you been anywhere lately," Chase asked correcting himself.

Mrs. Webb seemed to be thinking for a second. Chase took the time to check her vitals and since he had probably been given whatever she had, he hadn't any worries about eye goggles for the moment. Everything seemed fine for the moment.

"No," she finally answered.

"You're sure," Chase asked.

"Yes," Mrs.Webb stated.

Chase nodded and left.

* * *

"She has around five million littleviruses in her body," Cameron announced later back in the conference room. 

"No one could practically have that much unless they are immunocompressed," Chase reminded.

"Good for you then isn't it, you won't die from this," Cameron shot back.

Chase gave her a 'I'm annoyed at you but I'm going to ignore that comment' look while crossing his arms. House sat back amused now. He never seen Chase in all his career get so defensive like that. Heck maybe it was the prospect of maybe catching a fatal illness, House thought. Now, however, it was getting too much and he needed them to stay focused, he couldn't deal with arguements over nothing because they had a dieing patient to cure.

"Chase take two days off, don't thank me, though because you'll be your normal self by then," House added successfully covering his worries.

Chase gave a scathing look before leaving.

* * *

Chase took an extra day instead and successfully got House on his case about it. House wasn't one to worry though so Chase passed it as just getting out of clinic for not two but three days in a row. To be truthful, he felt awful and a headache to boot was such a pain. He was busy trying to get immersed in his crossword when House spoke. 

"I thought I gave you two," House said.

"I took an extra from the vacation time I rarely get," Chase mumbled an excuse.

"Looks like you took the extra day in front of a toilet all day. You call that vacation?" House asked.

Before Chase could reply, the other two ducklings came in.

"No one's been out of state, but there's internal bleeding in her uterus," Cameron reported.

"Good girl, now you go do an ultrasound, Foreman my clinic and Chase we're breaking into the patient's home," House ordered.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Since when have I done a B&E with you?"

House didn't want them to think he was concerned for the youngest of the team, but with the symptoms getting worse, he didn't want to leave the intensivist alone.

"Since now."


	3. Chapter 3

Chase absolutely refused to take a ride in House's motorcycle to just do a B&E. House tried ridiculing him and everything, but finally out of frustration, he threatened to fire him if he didn't just get on the damn motorcycle. Chase crossed his arms and after two minutes finally did as he was told.

At the patient's house, House picked the lock and both of them went separate ways; Chase to the left and House to the right. The place was a complete mess and looked like the place had been vacant for a while now. They met in the living room.

"This place must have been vacant for a while," Chase commented.

"It could be worse and the vacancy isn't a suprise. She's been in the hospital for seven days now," House scathed.

"She could just have malaria for all we know," Chase mumbled.

House looked at him strangely and Chase pointed to the picture on the mantel. It must have been the husband and from the looks of it, he had been to Africa not too long ago. Both Chase and House looked at each other, now the stakes got so much higher.

* * *

All of them were now in the conference room and Cameron was sharing her results from the ultrasound with them. Apparently though, she found more than just bleeding in the lungs. There was bleeding in the stomache now also, which was the most likely reason that Mrs. Webb wasn't very hungry.

"Okay so what explains headaches, adominal discomfort, vomiting, and fever," House asked going over to the board.

"Malaria, encepalitis, and Yellow fever," Chase suggested. At their pointed looks he added," The guys been to Africa for goodness sake and he's dead."

Foreman gave a pointed look before adding, " There are a lot of diseases that are in Africa and so far I think it's Malaria. Look at the symptoms."

"We have been but now we have the symptom massive internal bleeding," Cameron added.

Chase was busily getting himself coffee and looked over when she said that.

"She also has about ten million little viruses in her body," Cameron continued.

House looked over at them.

"Those diseases wouldn't explain these new symptoms," House looked over at Chase.

"This disease is copying those like Malaria," Chase said with a shrug.

"Okay ask the woman what part of Africa she's been to," House ordered.

Cameron and Foreman left leaving House alone with Chase. He was now more worried than ever and now that they hadn't come any closer to finding the disease.

"How many days has it been," House finally asked.

"Well four days ago I was thrown up on, so what does that tell you," Chase asked with a hint of annoyance.

"You should be fine, what haven't you been telling me?" House asked.

"Nothing," Chase mumbled before rushing out of the conference room past Cameron and Foreman.

"Follow him," House ordered.

They turned around to do just that.

* * *

Chase leaned over the toilet emptying his stomache. Each time he retched, blood mixed vomit came up and it burned his throat. He vomited again when the other two came in.

"Are you okay," Cameron asked hesitantly biting her lip and looking over to Foreman.

House put his cane in front of them to keep them from going any further. Both looked at him in shock, waiting for him to explain.

"He's contagious, if your going to go near him, suit up. You," he said pointing his cane at Chase. "You caught whatever Mrs. Weber has."

"Brilliant diagnosis," Chase mumbled trying to clear his head.

He became very dissy and passed out.

"Go get the nurses STAT and make sure they're covered up," House ordered quickly.

This was turning into one big nightmare and House wished he could just wake up from it.


	4. Chapter 4

Wilson came up behind his friend a couple of hours later and just stood by him. Since there were now two people with a deadly virus, they had to be put under quarentine and that meant that there was protocals, such as no one entered the room without proper protection. He realized that House would probably need a friend now more than ever since his youngest duckling was the one that was really sick. He, however, was going to wait for his friend to open up first. Cameron came breaking the silence.

"He has a lot of tiny viruses in his body. It could be a cross with typhoid and malaria," Cameron suggested.

"Then explain patient number one's massive internal bleeding," House asked.

"I can'-" Cameron was cut off when House put a hand up.

"It was rhetorical. Did you find out what part of Africa the husband was from," House asked.

"No, she's bleeding from her nose and her blood pressure is low," Cameron answered.

House paused looking through the glass. With this type of virus then there had to be more than two patients. What kind of virus was it, House thought.

Foreman came breaking the silence.

"Your never going to believe this but her husband was vacationing in Angola Africa died about five days after," Foreman answered their question.

"That means that it could be a viral hemorragic fever," Cameron suggested.

"What do you mean could be, it is," House replied.

The two remaining ducklings looked shocked.

"But what is going to happen then," Cameorn asked since she was the first to recover.

"The fatality rate is 35 to 90 percent and the treatment is antibodies from those who survive," House answered them dismayed.

This was bad!

A/N: sorry that I haven't updated in a while but that is because I've been busy with school and I was grounded for a couple of it.


	5. Chapter 5

House twirled his cane as he sat deep in thought. Hemmorogic Fevers fit into three catorgies; horrible, more horrible and the worst horrible. Marburg virus was the least dangerous but still one of the three deadliest viruses in the entire world. There was a way though besides supportive therapy that the patient could survive and that was proteins from the patient that survived. He hoped that he could get that, until then it'd have to be supportive.

"What do we do now," House turned around to see the other ducklings just standing there.

"I want you to see which viral hemmorogic fever he has so we could determine how much trouble he's in," House said.

"I'll do it," Cameron said.

As she turned around to leave House added," And make sure you get enough but don't hit a vein, plus see how bad he's getting."

"Sorry," Cameron as she took the blood sample.

"I's okay," Chase reassured.

Cameron looked at him and noticed that he seemed to be in pain. Most patients were with Marburg and that is why she now thought he had it. Nontheless, she put a thermometer in his mouth.

"You experiencing any pain," Cameron asked.

"Just a small headache," Chase said cutting back a grimace.

"I can imagine," Cameron said.

She'd have to remember to look up more about the lethal diseases later, now she was going to take the tests to check them out.

"Cameron do you know what I have," Chase asked.

"No but you will get better," Cameron added as a way to not worry him.

"Then why are you in a suit," Chase asked.

Cameron thought for a moment. He was one of the sweetest men she had ever met, when he wanted to be. It was very sweet when he had been concerned when she had almost been infected with aids and he generally knew how to get people to trust him. She remembered how hard it had been for her when Foreman was ill, but he had not had the risk of massive internal bleeding either, she added sadly.

"Because I've become more self conscious since I almost had gotten aids," She answered.

Chase nodded.

Cameron hated the fact that Chase who had never had a threatening illness in all his life gotten the worse in all the world. She was now determine to find a way to help him and if not at least treat the symptoms so that he can survive. With that in mind, she went to test the blood samples.


	6. Chapter 6

Cameron stayed in the lab as she calculated the protein with the blood samples. It was definitely Marburg meaning there was probably going to be more cases and she assumed that the first patient wasn't a loner. She decided to report her findings to House.

She stared as House twirled his cane deep in thought again. He only looked up when Cameron made herself known with a steady, "House." He looked up at her and nodded for her to proceed to give the information.

"Well we know for a fact that it is Marburg virus and that it's fatality rate is less than Ebola, which is a good thing," Cameron added.

"How much of a good thing, huh," House snapped.

Perhaps he was just moody because he was unable to refill his vicodin or maybe he really was worried about Chase and didn't know how to show it. Either way he was taking it out on Cameron and she thought it was unfair because she hadn't started the outbreak.

"I'm sorry, I meant that he has a better chance of getting-"

House cut her off.

"Do we have the immunity against it? Sorry but we only get it when someone survives it and so far all the patients we have are close to death," he retorted.

Foreman came when Cameron was close to tears. Raising his eyebrow, he cast a suspicious glance between the two only to get the go ahead to tell them what he had came here for.

"Patient one is hemorrhaging so badly that not even a transfusion works and get this, two more patients came in, both had contact with her and her husband," Foreman finished.

"That means we have an epidemic," House stated.

"Where are you going," Foreman asked.

Cameron just listened to the conversation.

"What does it look like I'm doing; the wombat won't tell us what's wrong so I have to wring it out of him with fear. It's a powerful motivation," House added.

Cameron put herself between the glass door and House. He raised his eyebrows and went to go the other way until she blocked that way too. He could have angrily pushed her aside but that was just too mean and she'd probably whine for months afterwards so he settled for a glare.

"You can't tell him what he has," Cameron answered her reason for barring him from leaving.

"Believe it or not missy but yes actually I can," House remarked.

"But if he finds out he'll freak hence worsening his condition," Cameron pleaded.

"But, but, but, let me through NOW!" House shouted the last part.

Cameron obeyed but followed him closely followed by Foreman.

"You can't do this," she continued pleading with him.

"Foreman how's his condition," House asked.

"His fever's a steady one hundred and three degrees, his backaches and headaches are worse and his eyes are sort of red," Foreman relayed.

"Wow he has Marburg," House concluded sarcastically.

"I'd treat the few blood clots he has right now with heparin," Foreman suggested.

"Go ahead; we have to keep him alive after all." Cameron stopped in her tracks.

"He could die and your cracking a joke, let's forget that he's our colleague and treat him like any other patient," Cameron snarked and left them there.

"She's in a pissy mood," House observed.

"Or maybe she loves Chase," Foreman suggested and then added, "We all know that Chase had been crushing after her and now I think Cameron realizes she may have feelings for him too."

"I think I better talk to Chase," House informed before heading to the room.

m.d m.d m.d m.d

"Hey Chase feeling any better," House greeted.

Chase looked up and House had a sudden urge to vomit. Of course he would have red eyes, it was a symptom of Marburg virus, but he hadn't actually seen it. At least he didn't have jaundice yet.

"What," he asked.

"Well they're keeping up with the heparin meaning, less blood clots. I need to know what hurts and what you're feeling," House ordered.

Chase groaned.

"If you want to know I have a severe backache and my head feels like I've been hit there senseless with a sledgehammer. What more do you want," Chase moaned.

"You seem better so I'm going to-"

"Shut up!" Chase shouted.

"Oh really, okay," House managed.

"Really, I swear I'll take your cane and hit you with it," Chase continued.

House smirked.

"I'll be right back," House nodded before leaving him to rant some more.

M.D M.D M.D M.D

"He's delirious," House said as he entered the conference room.

"Really, did you tell him," Cameron began.

"Don't you see, as long as he's showing personality changes instead of no personality at all, he's fine," House interrupted rolling his eyes.

"Say that to four more cases that came in and the fact that the original one is dead," Foreman countered.

"But she didn't show any sign of a personality problem, if Chase makes it past this, then his antibodies can help the other cases," House explained.

"That's good I suppose," Cameron surmised.

"And I didn't tell him that he had Marburg either, in case your happy," House retorted.

"I knew it," Cameron said.

"Knew what," House asked confused.

"You care for him, it'd make sense. He was your first and he made it past a month before anyone else," Cameron added.

"Go ahead and put that silly thing into your head. I just don't want to go through another round of interviews and it's hard to coax someone who's dead into coming back," House snapped and left to go talk to Wilson.

Cameron and Foreman shared a look. No matter how hard House tried to cover it, they knew that he cared.

M.D M.D M.D

a/n: I actually meant 103 degree temperature.


	7. Chapter 7

"So what if he has personality problems. There was a case where a patient didn't show any symptoms until he bled to death," Wilson explained.

Wilson was slightly worried that House's enthusiasm would end up hurting him in the end. Marburg virus was known for a relativally high fatality rate and although it was less than Ebola, it was still a doozy. The fact that Chase had the slightest symptoms meant it was a classic normal case and hopes shouldn't be held with it in case it happened.

"So what, he'll be the exception. Besides he knows that I hate interviews and how could I threaten him to come back to work then?" House asked sarcastically.

In reality, House was really worried about Chase, but he didn't show it nor would he believe what Wilson was telling him either. Chase was going to be fine, he had to be was what House kept on telling himself when he had one sinch of doubt over this whole thing.

"Fine but if he doen't make it, then there will be a lot of therapy in the future," Wilson added.

"You think I would need therapy," House asked.

"No but your team certainly will," Wilson replied going back to work.

Cuddy and her stupid high maintance for filling out completed paperwork, Wilson thought. House stood there for a moment and was about to say something when his beeper went off.

"I think there's trouble in paradise," House simply said before limping off in a hurry.

Wilson decided to follow from behind.

* * *

"Come on Chase, come back to us," Cameron cried. 

Foreman finally got a normal heart rhytm and sighed. House and Wilson came to see what the problem was and was shocked to know that things took a turn for the worse again.

"He went into cardiac arrest for five minutes, then after we got a normal rhythm, he went into cardiac arrest again. We finally have a normal heart rhythm lasting longer than a minute," Foreman answered.

"So he's fine," House asked.

"I wouldn't say fine, House he's in a coma," Foreman replied.

Wilson shook his head.

"There has to be a way to help," He said.

Foreman shook his head.

"It's supportive. The heparin isn't working as well as it was and his blood is starting to thicken again," Foreman explained.

"So he's in a coma and no longer grumpy," House asked sarcastically.

The other three ignored him. They knew it was his way of covering up his worry, so they didn't reply to that either.

"His brother Jacob called and said he'd be here tomorrow and to do what ever means necesary," Cameron said.

"Good in the mean time general hospital is on and I wouldn't want to miss it," House said.

He limped off before any one could reply.

* * *

Even though he had said that he was watching general hospital, his thoughts were elsewhere. Chase was gravelly ill and there was no way in hell that House was going to give up on him. The problem was, he may not have to and Chase would die right before his eyes.

House was still deep in thought when a man with blonde hair and blue eyes appeared.

"Yes," House asked.

"I'm Jacob Chase and I heard he was sick. I've come to see him," Jacob replied.

House noticed the resembalence right away, although Chase was a bit shorter than Jacob, they had the same colored eyes and hair, and the same nose. He also noticed the Australian accent.

"Come and I will show you-" House was cut off by the beeper again.

House limped as fast as he could to the ICU that even though Jacob wasn't a cripple, he had to follow to keep up. House kept him from entering and went in to see what was going on.

"What happened," House asked.

Cameron and Foreman stood in shock. House didn't have any protection on whatsoever and yet he was in here.

"Well we need to intubate him now," Foreman said.

House sighed before helping them.

After that was taken care of, he limped back to Jacob and told him what the problem was. The antibodies would be available later that day and then they wouldn't worry after that.

"So my brother would be fine after that," Jacob asked.

"The big problem is that he may have brain damage," House said.

"You telling me, he makes the big decisions for me," Jacob remarked.

House nodded.

* * *

"So Chase seems to be getting better now," House asked.

Cameron and Foreman looked up from what they were doing. It had been close but when the antibodies came, it seemed that all of them were getting better, even Chase who had the breathing tube removed later that day.

"He'll wake up soon," Foreman said.

"No brain damage," House asked.

"We'll see although you'll be telling some jokes for some time," Cameron said now going back to her work.

House looked at them and smirked. As long as Chase was alive and kicking, what more could he ask?


End file.
